se i E £3. inadequacies of the behaviourist eppre | 1 CHSHERSURSSSduISINIOn - ‘The ttle of ong of Skinner's major books, Verbal Hehe daly | Webra, Aaaliammaads —_ Se 1 The child imitates the sounds ad patteens which hehearsaraund! aK 2 People recognise the child's attempts 25 being similar to the adult 4.1 Introduction fpodels and reinfore reward) thi sounds, by approval or some other ey desirable reac % / \ [ Over the past two decades lashad 3 Imorder to obtain more ofthese rewards, the child repeats he sounds,“ an enormot ae and patterns, o that these become habits. i | \thetheorer repesetica Tevet 44 In this way the child's verbal behaviour is conditioned (or “shape.” | atthe theoretical level researchers in fist language acquisition have vn model. eoabeea working wich es id the learning "The habit formation process is essentially the same as when 3 pigeos’s «ia 1 Viki this eames fave stmUtMted researchers t0 view second language learning fe ;| t ae eae ee : |, smile perspectveandto seek outconcretevidenesuppoctiyew esi the va seri ; i i , prosesieoneepts shell, iavero a laa behaviour is shaped, so that it pecks at the correctdisesin ordertoobesin ir ‘At the practical level, first language researchers have developed new .} —j 3 habieformation Add noe yet had ime to run ie ful techniques for collecting and analysing children’s speech. These same es, ogether with others, have been used inthe field second an- —/ ‘ 2 S {guage learning, o gather daca and accumulate evidence about the sequen- ces and processes that are involved. | 3. With this narrowing of the gap becween theories and methods in the : ee §- two Fields, iis noc surprising thaca recurrent theme has been t “The behaviourist view of fist language acquisition was strongly challen- {ged from the 1960 onwards espécially under the influence vf Noam y ied knowledge of fre Fanguage sequisiton Bt Esomeky’slingulstc theories and tha Served as a backcloth for perceiving and understanding new facts about sav convinced most researchers of second language learning. In addition, many resarchers ce theit long etek seater labour second language learning is devoted to a survey of some recent first language leaning. fe guceztion ) ff" Before the 1960s, the study of child language was dominated mainly by the ‘behaviourist’ appcuach to language and learning. The, best-known = proponent of this approach was B. I. aeLAL uch an explanation becomes even less feasible if we consider thatthe «ules are often reflected very indirectly inthe actual surface strucuureof __{hespeech. For example, the surface steucture of Jobh is eazy fo please ¥ looks identical to that of Jobn is eager to please, yet the cpa. _atiteis complete dicen inthe pater pape peace eating John, whereas inthe con ims ho wate bl = Ly } do th essing Sch information about deep telatnships could not 3 acquited simply by observing and imitating verbal behav 4 The IRAP iy Set oa ceneaeaa ela ~ complex than any other lexcning &xk that Rost human Dey Ue “ake: Yer ily age ard with exceptional sad: by Re “Sge af Between three and a hal and five, normally-endowed ehildeen hhave internalised all che base suctuces of thie language AST, THE ior Be explained by ha lone. “235 Although children are exposed o different actual speech, they arrive at the same underlying rules as other childcen in their communigy, The cvidence also suggests that they pass through similar sequences _acquicing these ules. rom the outset, children seem to be constructing theie own eule-systems, which they gradu in the di the adule syst “dl (Sine LR VOL: Factors such as those juse discussed fescribe this capacity, the term {olten * shortened to LAD) was coined by researchers. Some characteristics ofthe j_... LAD would be: [iv tei ‘ewer fail to operate in normal 4 human beings, from infancy to about the age of elev + Icgives children a means of processing the speech in the environment so thar they can constcuctits underlying system; ela 3 To enable it to operate so quickly, ic may already contain sone ofthe 7 \_ ‘universal features which are found in all known languages; such Sie i the use of word order to signals or basic grammatical Unaiptce Wacberwten raed bios The actual te ‘LAD" ht now lot tf may be parly leo specific lan urge i the cxplain why second language leaning seal fen neucessul there mo such cial pei 4 EE Nate ee cheer 4 ‘other psychological factors or inthe nature ofthe learmng situation, We will return to this subject in chapter 5.° = © eet 1.8. The grammatical development of children ince the 1960s, there have been a large umber of stodies wl . examined children’s language mot from the perspective of the adult's) system, but in terms ofits own underlying system. They have shown howe children develop their grammatical system until ic corresponds, cven-—> = tually, to thatof theadultcommunify. " -In this section, Iwill outline;some of the developmen, 2s) so hee Be iy as articley or prepositions, The earles stage ci ances, Here are some examples taken fom already jiniag two words 1 form aiFist langage acquisition ‘camp, one cil was heard to say nny suck sthenpickingophecmather'ssock and when het mother was desi inthe Fest instance, then, the relationship berween the two words war one «possession (asin this mommy's sock), whereas inthe seconde was fone of agent and object (asin “mom _ Eerie nee et ga Which they can never have actually hea Nor can it be claimed that the utterances are simply impert acempts 0 imitate what the child,asight have heard from adules dificult ro think of an adule sentence where ull bate t « Binimars*for children's two-word utterances have generally tried to Jo so in terms of two main classes of word: a resticced “pivor‘class anda much larger open’ cass. However these attempts have soc managst to accoun: for al the two-word wteranes which chilen have been heard to produce. A more feutful abproach has been to focus con the meanings which the uteranees convey{ tors loam (976). found, foc example, that sentences containing two nbiihs Were Used Te Exprest five kinds of relationship (the interpretations depended on hec observa- tion of the child in an actual situation|: + conjunction (eg, cup glass, ef ‘eup and glass); 2 description (eg. party hat, e.,'a party hat); 3 possession (e.g daddy hat, cf “daddy's har’), 4 location (eg sweater chair, indicating where the sweaters); 5 agent —object (e.g. mommy book, c-f,"mommy is reading a book). Sina, Da Sob (979) looked ar the communicative functions pecloemed by two-word utterances in the speech of children acquiring six Ailfecen languages. He found seven main types of functi + locating or naming (e~. there book, Buch da); 3 demanding or desing (e.g. more milk; mehr Mileb);) 3 negating c.. not hungry, Kaffee nein); 4 describing an event or situation (e.g. block fll, Puppe koi); 5 indicating possession (e.g, my shoe, Mamas Hut); 6 describing a person or thing (eg. pretty dress, Milch hetss) 7 questioning (eg. where bal, wo Ball). ar em cech Another well-known analysis of children’s 34 communicative functions is that “functional” approach to language and language learning has also had considerable influence in’ the field of foreign and second language teaching. F ‘Workon the méanings and functions of children’s speec has led many people 0 play down the role ofa spscifclanguage-acquisiion capacity ing the child's development. They prefer to accoune for it morein, 1.52 The development o inflections and function word's ‘Telegraphic speech extends beyond the two-word stage. For exarny the child's processing eapacity grows; sailltlegraphi ‘Roger Brown (1973) scudied how theee childcen acquiced fourteen of these morphemesin thee fst language. His fndings came wo havea wide influence not only for studies in frst language acquisition, bu field of second langvage learning. ° . terion hich Brown used is thats ‘cent of the accasions when the aduli ‘cent of the so-called “obligatory Brown found, which was reinarkably sinilar forth from which individual childeen deeral ern a First language acquisition 3 preposition in 4. plural-s as in fwo books) QD iceelag pase forms asin she went possessive 's (asin daddy's hat) 7 uncontractible copala (e.g. is in yes, she is) ‘ 8. articles the and a (which were classified together) Pegulae past-ed (asin she walked) Yo regular thied-person-singulae-s (asin she ru 11 iecegulac thied-person-singular forms (e.g. she bas) 32 unconteactible auniliaey be (asin she wes coming) 15 contractible copula (asin she's tired) 24 conteactible auxiliary be (asin he's comting). ane ox fcown alsc/calculated the relative frequency of these morphemes inght speech of the children’s parents. He found that the order of frequen not correlate With the order of seqisiton, which therfore ca j, Brown's study was longitudinal Children's pertoramamee-over tse actual period of time when they were ‘mastering the morphemes. Two other cescarchets,lland Peter de Villiers (1973), studied the same morphemesin the speech of twenty-one children ina "eross-scetional’ study. Thatis, they studied the speech ofthe children acone pointin time. They then ren performed with the morphemesand scored’ each morpheme according tohow a ately the ehildcen produced it, They found thatthe acuucacy ordec wh they obtained by this method was similar to the acquisition order which Brown had obtained. “The study by the de Villiers is usually taken as significant from two {points of view: it seems to confirm Brown's ndings about theacq ‘order for morphemes; it seems to justify the assumption thar the ‘accuracy order’ obtained from a cross-sectional study can be taken asthe equivalent ‘of the acquisition order’ which a longitudinal study would have revealed. Neither of these points is necessarily tue. For example icis possible that ‘aecuracy order and acquisition order a:e two different notions, in which case the de Villiers’ study could actually be taken as contradicting thatof Brown Howeveisthe second assumptionin paticularisavery convenient “one to make, since a cross-sectional study requices less time to complete thana longitudinal one, We shall see in chapter 4 in fact, that most of the ‘comparable studiesin second language learning have been cross-sectional, Atthe same time, we shall also see that many researchers have criticised the assumption that such studies reveal an acquisition order. 2 10 ildren's acquisition of verb inflections jrovides some panticulat oes il ees br epee fc - 2 tS Th jeremmai al development of children Wheres Before they masts don (eg the ending on she? i] - walked), they produce a numberof common ieegulac past forms, such as hada went and came. At this stage, these forms are simply individual words for ? ~ the child, not the result of « productive rule for forming the past tense. a ‘Ther comes 3 pont whee the child uma yo regres instead of he i ‘eorrect forms, he produces deviant ujterances such as Where it godt 14004: and It comed off. Ata deeper level, however, these forms are nor asign of = Pgh regression, but of progress in the child's ing srstem. He has now {gio imasteced a rule (6r forming the past tense: the same rule that enables the | Shi adult to form walked from walk or climbed from climb. This rule leads : the child to produce goed and comed. Qaly later will he learn that go and come aren acrescepoons ois ‘We shall see in chapter 3 how in the second language context, too, extensive use has been made of learnerg, errors, as evidence for the active ‘process of ‘creative construction’ theoygh which they come to teems with i the second language system. a Atthe same time as morphemes, they are to follow similar sequences of development. Here is the sequence that has been observed for the acquisition of neg ‘ ? a 1 Atficet, che negative elementis no part of the structure ofthe sentence. leis simply atached to the beginging or end, asin: No singing = ‘Nothesun shining, 2 ie cond sage of dvclopminy he negative semen il into the sentence. Instead of no or xy use donor an ur they do nor yetinflect these for different persons oc tenses: “Inéwantenvelope. =" 08 = * Heno bite you." He don't wantit. ; 5, Childcen begin té produce the appropriate part ‘vets, t0 suit the person or tenseFirst language acquisition * With iotercogatives, to, childeen fest produce sentenges in which the tel structure of the sentence is not affected. In yes/no questions, they Res use intonation: ‘See hole? You can’ fixie? Foc ‘whinecrogatve the question word is a fst simply placed in Where daddy going? Why you eaughe ie? Where my spoon goed? Laver, children master the use of inversion with the auxiliary do, a8 jllugi-Klima (1968) found SB Se ae ee ay we cary out rae than 1 Atone stage, the child can either invert subject and vetb or prepose 4 question word, but not do both. We thus find inversion in yes/no questions (eg. Can he ride a truck?) but not in wh-questions (eg. Where I can put them?). + Later, the child is able 10 tombine Both operations so thot we find wh-questions with inversion (eg. Why can he go out). However, i ‘ay sill be beyond the child's eapacity to eatey out theee operations, 50 thatthe inversion may not take place ifthe sentence is also negated (68. Why he can't go outt). 3 Eveneually, this limitation goes and the child is able to perform all thcee operations in the same utterance ~ prepose a question word, invert and negate (as in Why can’t he go out?). ‘The evidence is nor sufficient, however, to determine whether al chi dren pass through these same stages. . ‘As with the morpheme studies discussed in the previous section, the ‘work cacried out on negatives and interrogatives has had considerable °, luence in the field of second language learning. As we shall see in chapter 4, similar studies have been carried out with sccond language learners; comparisons have been drawn between sequences in frst and. second language learning; and much discussion has been generated about the nature ofthe underlying processes, a "than cha ofthe ealy yeas. ahi lopment has ben the subject of less intensive study Seach yine itcie, «en oat aae eee | perlormante Gecome less estricive and that he becomes able ro. ¢ form operation ofa more and more complex nature As wellas opera tins widin a single lio: SE ecRSIE The foliag ol rw or snore dlaues into a complex ventnce. Tere is evidence thar tis later develop mene stares with elaues uted as object of the vb (2g. I think i's the trong wey ee ’ dul arama dsinstions may_not be manered much} before the age of ten: One of these the distinction mentioned earlier (section 1.3) between John i ger to please and John i easy fo lease. Another isthe distinction between Jahn asked Bill to come and Jobn promised Bill to come (he pion who i expected to come i Bil inthe fe teeny bu Joa inthe co Secs wi second languages (| leamners suggest shat they, too, acquire these distinctions compacativcly tate Equally important, the child: develops increasing knowledge of the, conventions for varying speech acording to the social situation. Craig Lawson found that even a the age of iv, chldcen were able to choose” dierent syle of spech foc adreaig pets, older cildech and adults (qivred iit ErvieTeipp, 1977). In a’atudy by Claudia Mirchell-Kernan. and Keith Kernan (1977) dldcen of seven use a ange of forms for. making requests which was eonparableto the range used adules They were alo clearly awaze of the social significance othe various Both th abil to appropriate styles are domains in whi well inc adul life in response to the person's widening communicative swell etek nal oer ‘1.7 Cognitive factors In iestlanguageaequisition 7) Aslsaid eatliee, one of theimpoctanif areas of debate ishow} acquisition is related to cognitive factors. nee ree two main waysin which hey may Be elated. ee mem 4.7.1 Language and concepts *. a. iada ion 1.5.1). There 17 GES SRE! of an incmate relationship Beeween cog development. For example, Richard G eta ec ‘ m le, Richard Cromer (1974) found thee he Engh pefect tens (he has walked et] warm oo ten do f, despite the fat thar the form if speech and cass ony of simple clemens which wer Sal vs capacity. He examined other aspects ot the chien and decided thatthe p Sdecerpa cen aens eclect tense did not appear unt hey ad spe the undedying concep of preset relevance? a. 2 AAs wells conceptual development leading to language developmen islikely tha the influence also works in the other recon for tenes the fact that “present relevance’ is embodied in the perfect tense helye stimulate the English-speaking child eo form the Concept. Similac, 9 language which makes a distinction between alienable' and ‘inalenatle | Pottession (cg, my book as opposed to my arm) wll encourage its J speakers to make a dstinetion of which an English speaker may Sever rE ds of possession mention :nowing embodied in German 1issen and kennen). ‘Thece isa second Way in which cognitive Factors influence fist language acquisition. We have seen how children create ordec in the language data jthey encounter, For example, they form rules and, in some casts, over- ‘ generalise these rules to contexts where they do not apply (resulting i errors such 25 comed or mouses). Here { ildren’s acquisition sequences and ors in various languages and suggested that the child has a number of \ ‘Rice re for making sense of language ata, For exaimple: Avoid exceptions.’ This principle might account for the tendeney to overpneralie re, mentioned shave ine Underlying meaning-telationships should be marked cleatly.” This ‘a aeptn ‘why the passive is more difficult for children than the active there seems tobe a natural tendency to prefer the first noun seitence to be the agent and the second to be the abject: a 5 ae iron sei ~ would explain, why chil id “tebe ws aerial the between genders in German of French. In other words, children scem Yo look init ig mae which ie ¢ ilegorened ns consent way Once RES es Se Sess (teat en Soden Ee eon eonates == ; IF rEehTor ope pane sor ia wl Kot ogee Ed my te pe! | ly Cale the the eas sore eeiay wo te econdlappsee ee, Here (65 arse Seducing forms ck comed or mouses); they have difficulty when items of language do rot cor-, teapond deal to ie of mearing lee many completes peasy) tod they mak errs wih deacons Cc nr no mesa Ee | normal communication of meanings (2g genders of many of he case |Z yy cadings in, s37, German). addressed to small children by mothers, other ‘These studies have shown that this so-called __ number ‘of characteristics which distinguish between adults: For example:‘model for imitation, However, the role of imitation in the acquisition processis not clear, It seems that when children imitate an utterance they have just heard, they usually changeit so that it conforms to the grammar i.e. creative cules) that they themselves are operating ac the time. Studies ren ace most likely to imjrate patterns that they ‘also suggest that ch cocess of niastering. These findirigs would have just learne and arein the Tote oFimiration 1s also unresolved in we shall sce later in chapter 4 (section 4.6). 1.9 Summary In this chapter, we have surveyed some recent work in first language acquisition, as.a preliminary to looking at second language leacnin have seenFIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ays— The behaviourist emphasis on habit-formation has given way to a more mentally- oriented approach which stresses the child's active contribution to the learning process. This process of “creative construction” seems to lead children through similar stages of development. Answer these questions |. How do behaviourists define language ? |. How did behaviourists account for children's mistakes? |. Different arguments have proved the behaviourist approach wrong. Mention some of them. . What is the difference between competence and performance? . What is the difference between surface structure and deep structure? . What are some of the characteristics of the LAD? 4 . What is meant by “critical period"? Fe THE GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN "Children develop their grammatical system until it corresponds, eventually, to that of the adult community” 1.- What does Halliday 's functional approach to language consist in? 2.- What does the word *morpheme" refer to in Roger Brown's study? 3.- Which of Brown's findings have struck you the most? 4,- What stages do kids go through before they achieve mastery of negatives and interrogatives? ff THE LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENT OF THE CHILD "Tf caretaker speech is, indeed, an important factor in the learning process, it may provide us with clues as to the kind of input that is most likely to facilitate second language learning.” What characteristics of caretaker speech distinguish it from typical speech between adults?